Behold the 12 Holy Nights CONCENTRATION.
A Complimentary Spiritual Exercise & Twelve Day journey into the Heart of the Matter…into the Arms of the Mother, Father, Friend, Beloved God.
This journey is meant to enliven & revivify the blood, to dissolve doubt & fear, to midwife the birth of the Higher-Being through the Womb of Remembrance, to bring clarity regarding the Tasks at Hand & to develop the INNER capacities to PERCEIVE what stands behind the material world.
Each concentration will provide a series of short readings that merge to reveal a Sacred Task given through THE WORD.
The readings will be a marriage of voices from those who are pioneering the Science of Spirit, or HEART-thinking.
“May you come to KNOW the true meaning of Christmas!”
The Over-arching TASK at hand:
“To penetrate to the reality of the world...is the task of this post Atlantean Epoch, and Rudolf Steiner tells us, we can only do this by developing the mood of ‘wonder’ through a reverent devotion to the world of reality, which eventually leads us to...loving ‘surrender’.
We must surrender our lower egos by changing our thinking...
When we develop a feeling of ‘loving surrender’ we are transforming our thinking into a faculty that allows the world itself to teach us something of its nature...
One who has practised surrender rises to an imagination of the flourishing will in all things...
To develop imagination one must learn to think differently, that is one must learn to forget the lower ego for a time, so as to find the higher self...
What helps us to achieve this? Anthroposophia, she opens our hearts and births our Higher egos...”
Through this cascade of readings, you are being asked to read between the stars.
You are pioneering a new way of thinking.
It may not be easy to weave the golden thread, but keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Allow the "mood of soul” that births within as you read one passage to merge with the “mood of soul” from the next.
In the end, practice uniting all soul moods that have arisen into ONE. You do not have to understand every word with your mind, but rather bring the questions (perhaps intense questions or confusion) into your heart and let them gently work upon you.
Ponder in your heart.
Take this with you into dreamtime…into night school.
Ask your guardian angel to reveal to you what you need to KNOW in the light of your work here.
If all else fails, go outside at night, find two stars side by side & allow your gaze to rest between them. Notice what you see. Notice what you feel.
You will begin to FEEL what I mean when I say “weave the golden thread.”Bring this feeling into your reading.
December 24th, 2021 Addition:
These complimentary thoughts will add an ever-evolving essence to the mix. Nothing is fixed. Everything grows and changes. I find it essential to stir the substance. Consider this to be a Biodynamic assist as we walk together through the 12 Holy Nights under the stars of the work accomplished last year during this time (with the existing body of work).
I feel to mention that my intuitions regarding the order in which I presented the zodiac last year hold wisdom, but this order is never set in stone and there is more to consider. This year, I would like to weave the insights of Willi Sucher, Master Astrosopher & friend from beyond the grave. His inspiration will undoubtedly provide an elevated ferment to what I humbly (and with a “student’s heart”) brought forward in 2020.
Essentially, my work this year is to layer the work from last year with new-found wisdom from my current studies with Astrosophy.
In this light, I offer up this Golden thread into the tapestry of our collaborative striving.
Let us weave VIRGO into the 1st Holy Night:
“Let us consider more deeply the symbology of the Christmas tree. If we really look at that fir tree, we can see it as a pure symbol of the world. The pyramid of the tree was the picture of the world to the ancient peoples, and to the Egyptians the Pyramid represented the perfect picture of their universe. Now, if we should think that we have advanced in knowledge since then, let us consider that perhaps they knew more than we do. For the square base of their pyramids had four corners that rose to a triangular apex. This three that rises from the four, the triangle springing forth from the square base, has always esoterically represented that subtle symbol of the sevenfold human being, the sevenfold universe, and with the four earthly aspects and the three heavenly aspects. And this tree, as the one that stands before us now, bears upon it the planetary symbols, the alpha and the omega, and at its foot lies the crib, which represents that cave or stable in which the Light Child was born in the depth of the night. This must become more the Festival Birth of a Being experienced during those twelve Holy Nights, the Birth of an invisible Spiritual Being, of etheric and astral nature and reality. To experience this Birth is the great comfort that a real experience of the deep truths of Christianity can bring to humanity.
In the future, we have to experience this as a reality, of a purely etheric or astral nature, connected with the starry world and yet shining forth from the Earth as well. It is connected with that spiritual stream which brings down the forces of the cosmos and reawakening them in the thinking, feeling, and willing of all people, so that the star may become a radiating star; for this Earth is still the dark planet of the universe. This new realization of human beings can bring into being this star world for the sake of the universe, for the Earth shall no longer receive, but the cosmos awaits that Sun-force streaming out from the cave and the crib in the midnight hour, out into the far spaces of the universe.
The Moon forces remain silent on these twelve Holy Nights, because the Moon year has ended, and the pure Sun Being is wanting to stream out into the universe to the waiting cosmos of stars. The real Being that is born can be experienced by us on these twelve nights, and He lives on into the future, as He accompanies humanity as their silent Brother, deeply concerned with human destiny.
The twelve Holy Nights throw open the gate of necessity into the realm of the real, for the Moon in slipping back and the Sun forces are temporarily unopposed. This twelvefoldness connects the Earth with the Zodiac in its events. The path of the Sun and Moon and stars are each concentric rings around the Earth, as a kind of crude conception, which are marked by the constellations of the Zodiac. Instead of our usual imagination of the spiritual forces streaming down upon the Earth from the Zodiac, let us see it during these twelve nights as the inner spiritual Sun of the Earth streaming forth into the universe to illuminate one constellation each night in turn.
The Zodiac represents that spiritual periphery beyond the Earth from which stream the great archetypes, with which we dealt the other night. I have done many years of research and observation, which goes much deeper than simple comparisons. Let us take them in turn, realizing that the first night is that period from Midnight on 24 December to midnight on the 25th. Therefore, we have:
25 December - Virgo: The Virgin constellation. We can contemplate the spiritual events of that night and let them light up the Virgin constellation for us. This night was dedicated to the birth of Jesus, and it holds within its chalice the great Mystery of the Virgin Birth. This constellation can be lit up and interpreted by what happened on Earth. The ancient peoples symbolized it as an Angel with a sheaf of corn. However, for the Christians, we have the Virgin carrying the Child, and in the Apocalypse, the woman in heaven giving birth to the Sun.”
-Willi Sucher | The Twelve Holy Nights
And may this become the Valerian of the outflowing wisdom available to our souls:
“24TH DECEMBER - 6TH JANUARY - Alpha and Omega
Dear friends,
This is the night of the QUESTION.
We have come through the trials of Advent and entered into the Temple of Higher Wisdom. Now, if you have been following my meditations on the Twelve Holy Nights you will know that I have postulated that there is a connection between the two dates, the 24th of December and the 6th of January.
My spiritual calculations based on the work of Rudolf Steiner show that on the 6th of January, the potential exists for the rebirth of a new celebration on the following 24th of December.
What does this mean?
Firstly we must remember that Rudolf Steiner gave indications that each Holy Night has a bearing on a corresponding month of the year. The first night corresponds to Jan, the second to February and so on until we come to December, 12 months 12 holy nights.
In my book Advent and the Twelve Holy Nights I propose that the two poles, that is that the 6th of January can unite with the 24th of December in the human being through consciousness, just as a memory of yesterday unites with today every morning when we wake up, despite the fact that in the intervening time we have been in the spiritual world but have been unconscious in the physical world. A collapsing of time occurs so that we can have a continuity of consciousness.
This is the same principle that unites the 6th of January and the 24th of December, so that the 6th of January becomes a 13th day while the 24th of December becomes a 13th Night. 13th Day and 13th Night meet across time and space.
In this sense the 24th of December becomes not merely the first holy night but also the culmination of the Year's work that was begun from the time of Epiphany over past 12 months. Just as the 6th of January is the culmination of the work begun on the 24th of January which has proceeded over 12 days.
This is a Rosicrucian secret for it was what Christ told Peter in reference to Lazarus John that the first would be the last and the last the first.
And what is this culmination?
It is the achievement of harmony between Light and love.
But what does this mean in real terms?
When Christ descended to the Earth He entered with His Sun Ego into the body of the Paradisal soul Jesus or that part of Adam that was untouched by sin and transformed his body into a resurrected body of light and his soul into a soul filled with the highest manifestation of love - Adam Kadmon.
Alpha and Omega.
Sergei O Prokofieff says, in reference to this:
'Thus one can say: Christ came to the Earth in order to make his truth manifest and united himfself withthe physical body of Jesus of Nazareth and his human soul, so that the former might begin to shine and the latter might become the source of cosmic love on the Earth.' And the Earth Becomes a Sun - The Mystery of the Resurrection.
For Rudolf Steiner tells us that matter is woven light and the soul is diluted love.
We also know that the goal of Earth evolution is to transform Wisdom or Light into Love, and the objective of each year we live on earth is to achieve this incrementally or in gradalis. The Body or light is related to the nerves and senses, just as love is related to the blood.
Hence Christ himself transforms the bread into his body through light and the wine into his blood through love.
The Rosicrucian Mystery was related to Light and the transformation of the body (Philosopher's Stone), while the Grail Mysteries concerned themselves with the transformation of Blood into the purest substance of Christened love.
For whom does the Grail serve? It serves he who serves the Grail!
The Rosicrucian Stream through Christian Rosencreutz took over the leadership of the Grail Stream and both streams were united in Anthropposophy through Rudolf Steiner as a new spiritual path - A Rosicrucian Path of the Grail, that is, the creation of a body and soul capable of being a Vessel for Christ love. A body and soul that serves Christ as Jesus of Nazareth served Him as the first Grail.
For Jesus of Nazareth could be said to have been a 'World Question' that was answered by Christ.
Hence Parzifal, must ask the right question before he can come to the Grail. Since the Grail path is a path that harmonises wisdom and love so that the first is the last and the last the first.
On this night, all the Christ love we were able to receive on the 6th of January and which we have elaborated throughout the year is able to become transformed into a higher consciousness or Light.
For what is love if not an organ of Christ Consciousness?
It is on this night therefore that we enter deeper into the Temple of Wisdom, for now on this night the heavens draw the closest to the Earth. And so it is the night that the masters and the hierarchies draw near to those who have developed a consciousness capable fo rising up to meet them with a question.
Throughout the year we have many questions that rise up in our souls, but on this night we must discern which is the most important question and this is accomplished by those who have developed this harmonious interplay between light wisdom and love. They are found worthy and in the coming 11 nights they can work in such a way that each night lays a seed for coming year and the tasks they have to perform on behalf of Christ.
Those who can do this become co workers with the spiritual world, for they have developed a consciousness capable of knowing what question to ask. Since without the right question one cannot obtain the right answer!
During Advent we underwent three trials before we could step into the Temple, this assured that we had the strength to cross the threshold. But now we are in the Temple we must offer as a sacrifice of all we have accomplished during the year as a question!
Those who were allowed to enter the old mystery temples would offer sacrifice and in turn receive the answers to their questions passively in a state that was not conscious. In our time we must work with creative consciousness to meet the gods half way! For this question is what will be answered at the end of the twelve Holy Nights when we experience our own Epiphany!
In my book on Advent and the Twelve Holy Nights I state:
'One must imagine it like this...if we are full of love on this day, the 6th of January, if we are full of a love of truth, a love of creativity, a love of life, then when we perform a review on the following 24th of December we can cast our mind back over the year to re-collect the 6th of January. When we do this, in our consciousness, they become one!'
Christ Love ignites Christ Light on the 13th Night - that is our year in service of Christ is offered up in a question formulated by the light of wisdom.
May we move quietly, full of awe and hope, in the halls of the ancients in the coming nights having asked the right question which shall enlighten our path through these dark, star filled, wondrous Holy Nights to the answer.
With light and warmth of love, and in loving memory of Stephen Lesiuk who accompanies me during these nights and inspires me with his loving wisdom.
Namaste.”
Adriana Koulias | Holy Nights 2021-2022
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Here begins the body of work created in 2020.
The 12 Zodiacal Signs by Rudolf Steiner are presented throughout this journey in Sidereal Astrology style & order, beginning with Sagittarius.
Please see the comment section at the bottom of this post for further explanation as to why this concentration purposefully begins with the zodiacal sign of Sagittarius.
Day 1
“I See.”
How can I see the world with new eyes such that the heavens and the earth are united within me?
“For the Father Spirit
of the Heights holds sway
In Depths of Worlds
Begetting Being...”
Who is Anthroposophia?
“This Being, AnthropoSophia is intimately aware of each spiritual struggle and success that the aspirant experiences. In a way, she is the midwife of our higher selves, helping us bear the pangs of spirit-birth into this new land.
She awaits the spirit-courage of each individual to forge his or her own path to the Spirit Self through the Consciousness Soul, that part of ourselves we call the higher self.
In the future, she will evolve to become the fully active earthly and cosmic nutrition stream that feeds the soul and spirit of each person and the spiritual world: ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’
AnthropoSophia is the pure virgin maiden who awaits the sacred marriage and sleeps not, lest she miss the coming of the groom.
At this point in spiritual evolution, any striving soul can build a bridge across the abyss of modern thinking to reach the land of imaginative archetypes that enliven souls who witness the spirit.”
What does Loving Surrender LOOK and FEEL like?
SEE into what you FEEL as you read the following:
“John guided him into the water and he was submerged into light and colour and sound. His soul was wedded to the element of the river. All the pictures of his life rushed past his eyes until he heard a flute song, and he could smell sheep, earth and grass. All of it was married to the warmth of friendship, the lulling breezes, the glow of the sun, the fingers of the wind, the soothing feel of his mother’s hand and the cry of a child in the wilderness. Now, there was nothing more. He did not breathe. He was lost. He was alone. A flame hovered over him. A sparkling, ever-tranquil, lilting radiance issued from the encircling round, and above him the spirit of Yeshua gathered up to form the shape of a bird. It lingered a moment over him, as if in a final farewell, and was given up, with light in its wings and life in its breast.
Surrendered! ”
CONCENTRATE upon the following with Loving Surrender:
Lovingly Surrender the lower ego (i.e. judgement, opinion & one-sidedness) for but just a moment…a Divine Breath.
Behold THE WORD with the immaculate Heart.
Invite ANTHROPOSOPHIA to Baptize you in the New Water, the “Draught of Remembrance.”
“Let us consider these things in detail. A person who maintains a home in grand style, who can travel first class on the railway, may easily appear on the surface to be an oppressor. And a person who wears a threadbare coat and who travels fourth class will appear to be the oppressed. But one does not have to be an incompassionate individual nor a reactionary in order to understand the following clearly. Nobody is oppressed or exploited because I wear a particular coat, but only because I pay the man who made the coat for me too little. The poor worker who has acquired his inferior coat for little money is, in relation to his fellow human beings in this respect, in exactly the same position as the rich man who had a better coat made. Whether I am poor or rich, I exploit if I acquire things for which insufficient payment is made. Actually today nobody ought to call someone else an oppressor; he ought first to look at himself. If he does this carefully he will soon discover the “oppressor” in himself. Is the work which you have to deliver to the well-to-do delivered only to them at the price of bad wages? No, the person who sits next to you and complains to you about oppression enjoys the work of your hands on exactly the same conditions as the well-to-do whom you have both turned against. One should think this through and one will then find a different way of approaching ‘social thinking’ from the more usual ones.”
Think with your HEART all the way through to the other side of the above wedded WORDS.
Weave the Golden Thread.
Take the fruits of your labor into dreamtime with you tonight.
Allow your Higher Being to begin to inform your inner most movement.May you come to hold the FAITH in the following:
““O Creator of 𝒜𝓁𝓁! In the garden of Thy dreams let me be a radiant flower. Or may I be a tiny star, held on the timeless thread of Thy love as a twinkling bead in the vast necklace of Thy heavens. Or give me the highest honor: the humblest place within Thy heart. There I would behold the creation of the noblest visions of life. O Master Weaver of Dreams, teach me to loom a cushioning carpet of Self-realization on which all Thy lovers may tread as they travel to the shrine of eternal wakefulness. May I join The worshipping angels who offer at Thine altar the bouquets of their ever new perceptions and intuitions of Thee.””
May you be held in the womb of 𝒮𝑜𝓅𝒽𝒾𝒶 & filled with the Light of ℭ𝔥𝔯𝔦𝔰𝔱 today & always.
Image by @waldorfchalkboarding
